First Chiang Mai & Partners

So we have had our first week in Chiang Mai, we sent out an email with more information on it - if you want that and didn't receive it then just let us know. Below is a video clip to let you know about the situation in Burma and the work Partners and Free Burma Rangers are involved in (sorry dial-up people). There are more on Vimeo and Youtube just search under Partners: Relief & Development.

This is Our Home from Partners Relief & Development on Vimeo.

On Friday, we also went to a festival of the Shan people - they are a people group from Northern Burma that is fighting a civil war and being oppressed big time by the Burmse Army. Unlike the Karen people, they are not allowed to form refugee camps, so instead come illegally into Thailand where they end up with the worst lowest paying jobs. 70% of prostitutes in Chaing Mai - which has the highest percentaage per head of population in the world - are Shan; as are most of the construction workers, which are very poorly paid here. This festival is their coming of age festival if you like, where the young guys are all dressed up and carried round on he shoulders of their fathers. There was much colour, dancing and music.



That day we also got a bit of a lesson on Buddlism. A couple of things to think about....

• If Buddlism at an academic level doesn't believe in a god - which they don't - then are those images of Buddla really idols???? Sadly, they become so, for the common people more out of superstition than anything else.
  
• Buddlism believe in achieving a state of Nirvana. They have these different level structures that getter narrower and narrower as they reach the top - which is a point. The bottom widest level is Hell - level 4 is heaven ----- which then has lots of levels until you reach the narrow point at the top which is the aim - Nirvana. This is a state not a place. But, with this being the Buddist worldview, when Christians come along and say do you want to go to heaven? Buddlists hear something completely different.
• Buddlism is about getting rid of suffering - you do this basically by letting go of desire. To a degree there is truth in this - but 'cos there is no God, no nothing really except "letting go", Buddlism in the end leaves people empty. Which is why a lot of Buddlists are really into folk Buddlism.

So that is a little of what I learnt in our little lesson from Stu Corlett. I typed it here party for anyone who was interested and mostly so I wouldn't forget.
So tomorrow we are of to Mae Sot maybe - and going to visit one of the Karen refugee camps. Will let you know how it all goes.

Til Next Time

D